As mentioned
in '27, there were no saloons, brothels, or pool halls in
Independence, but there was one gambling casino.
Located on the south side of the Independence Square, on the
second floor above what is now a restaurant called the
Courthouse Exchange. Today, like a lot of things on
the Square, it is vacant. The Hair Gambling House had
been raided the following April and justice was served.
By New Years Eve they were back in business, not more than a
stone's throw from Judge Truman's office, the New Year's Eve
crowd being more than the cops could ignore. A dozen
men, six from the Jackson County's Sheriff's department and
six from the prosecutor's office, showed up on the first
Saturday night of the new year unannounced. They
rushed past the doorman, whose job it was to keep out the
riff raff. The raiders found four pistols, one large
knife, several bottles of whiskey, fifty dice, a half a
bushel of poker chips, black jack, stud poker, and dice
games in progress, with $70 in cash still on the table.
32 men were arrested and taken to jail. After posting
a total of $17,000 in bonds the men were released, the bonds
covering the fines.
The following
Friday at 6 pm the Hair establishment was again visited on a
tip. The brothers were in the process of opening up
again. New gaming equipment was coming to light.
The stash included a new pistol and a roulette wheel.
The brothers were taken to the county jail in Kansas City,
their game finally up.
Fairmount Park
opened its gates officially on Saturday, May 12. The
previous weekend the gates were opened free to the public.
There was even dancing in the newly redecorated and enlarged
ballroom, Earl Coleman's new band providing the music.
Many improvements were made and park management wanted to
show them off.
A 400-foot
wooden walkway was added to the west side of the lake,
linking the boat house and the bathing beach, which got a
new coating of sand. Animals for kids to ride, like
goats and more ponies, were procured.
The first act
at Fairmount Park was a trick auto act labeled "Gregge's
Auto". They passed through the air back and forth....
The Parent
Teachers Association of the Independence suburbs was the
first park picnic, followed by a Mother's Day celebration.
A prize of $5 each was given to mothers with "the most
girls," boys, boys and girls, the oldest and youngest
mother.
Memorial Day
was ruined by rain, hail, and lightning, sending everyone
running for cover. The storm was responsible for
knocking out 500 phones in the Fairmount, Mt. Washington,
and Sugar Creek area.
This year
Fairmount Park was getting a lot of competition for KC's
entertainment dollars. First there was Fairyland Park,
which went all out to lure the public and picnics. Two
of the premier picnics were the P. T. A. of First Kansas
City, Missouri, followed by the P. T. A. of Kansas City,
Kas., both in May. The picnics weren't just one day
affairs, each lasting three days. 600 prizes were
given, number one was a Shetland pony, awarded to the child
that sold the most tickets to the event. Radios and
lots of athletic equipment, from baseballs to tennis
racquets were given out as prizes. The main attraction
was a double-parachute leap from a balloon. Second,
Winnwood Beach, north of the river, opened as a $1 million
amusement park. Frank Winnwood, the son a former
prominent Clay County jurist, and his wife, ran the park
with a hands-on style. Advertised as "The Atlantic
City of the West," their niche was pretty girls (beauty
contests). The park featured a Ferris wheel, dancing,
swimming, boating, and various rides and concessions.
There were weekly beauty contests as soon as the weather
allowed the girls to take off their clothes. There was
also a roller coaster, and a dance floor was built over the
lake. There was a Santa Claus ride which was pulled by
reindeer, which took a person through Santa Claus Land.
A circle swing, a fun house, and riding academy for horse
lovers. The official opening was Sunday, May 27.
Admission to the park would be free, but once inside...
The new
Winnwood's first attraction was aeroplanes. The "Beals
Flying Circus" (featuring mono-planes, one-wing, the
latest thing) with "Daredevil Pilots", put on an air show.
After the figure eight, loops, barrel rolls, flying in
formation, and buzzing the crowd the five planes each
dropped 1,000 long-stemmed red roses over the crowd.
Every hour on the hour a bus left Seventh and Grand for the
park, via the ASB Bridge.
Also competing
for the entertainment dollar were movie houses, thanks to
air conditioning, allowing them to stay open all year.
Talkies were becoming common. The last silent movie
was only a year away. A popular movie at the Liberty
Theater was a serious look at the younger generation.
The title was "The Road to Ruin". Insinuating that the
generation that will soon save the world was a bunch of
crazed partiers breaking all the mores of decency, and some
Commandments.
The second
week in June brought the Republican National Convention to
Kansas City. There wasn't a lot of debate, Secretary
of Commerce, poor old Herbert Hoover, was nominated to fill
the vacuum in the White House left by Calvin Coolidge, a
very lucky politician.
Monday night,
June 11, the city of Kansas City and its suburbs put on one
of the city's largest parades in a town renowned for its
parades. Starting at 9th Street and Grand Avenue at
8:30 p.m., the torch lit parade snaked it's mile-long,
10,000 strong, down Grand Avenue, ending at the World War
One memorial. An estimated 200,000 - 250,000 lined the
streets. Leading the parade was a pair of elephants.
The caboose were two camels. In between were thousands
carrying torches being tossed in the air, not all being
caught. There were 21 marching bands, the one
representing Independence was the 54-piece "Independence
Co-operative Band". as the parade passed, many people
crowding the sidewalks sang the National Anthem. Forty
floats, some of them adorned with characters to look like
past Republican presidents from Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt.
The Independence Missouri float was manned by the
great-great nephew of John Grinter, the only man in rural
Jackson County, to vote for Lincoln in 1860. Cowboys
on horses, Indians, stage coaches, old railroad engines and
cars. Columns of marchers carrying signs and banners
for the potential nominees, mainly Hoover, Lowden, and
Curtis. Sprinkled in were hundreds of automobiles
decorated in red, white, and blue.
The parks
profited because the convention was over before it started.
President Coolidge stayed out by not endorsing anyone.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover won the nomination before the
fist ballot. Silent Cal said of Hoover, "He gave me a
lot of unsolicited advice, all of it wrong."
Fairmount
Park's beach opened Memorial Day weekend. A slide and
waterwheel were added to the fun. The first act of the
new season was "Diving Ponies." All the way from
Hollywood, the horses had been in many silent cowboy movies.
Their job was stunts, like jumping and swimming in rivers.
Miss Helen Manning, a Hollywood stunt lady, along with her
horse, dived 50 feet from a tower into the lake. The
act was free with a paid admission, and would last two
weeks, every day at 4:30 and 9:30. Besides the 54
amusements and concessions, a free silent picture show was
shown in the vacant bandstand, darkness permitting, no
vaudeville. Coleman's Fairmount Park Orchestra played
dance music every Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursdays.
Plenty of free parking, with street car service to the front
gate.
On Sunday,
June 24, Fairmount Park, not to be outdone by Winnwood
Beach's beauty contest, staged a reproduction of the Miss
Missouri contest previously held in St. Louis. Miss
Missouri, her attendants, and twenty-four young ladies from
various cities representing their community as the prettiest
girl in town. The girls modeled the latest in bathing
suit attire, meaning less suit than last year. The
largest picnic of June was the 20,000 employees, friends,
and hangers-on of the "Allied Railroad Employees."
Winnwood Beach
had a contest to name the newest ride added early in the
season. A $50 prize was split between three people who
submitted "The Whirlwinn." A new concession was added,
the Gas House. A bathing beauty contest of sorts was
held starting on June 24. Girls received a ticket
every time she paid to swim. After five tickets, she
was entitled to a free bathing beauty photo. Every
week the prettiest girl won a season pass to Winnwood.
Fairyland
Park's season opened with a Battle of the Bands. A
14-piece orchestra from the University of Missouri
challenged the same from the University of Kansas. The
winner in each of the numbers was judged by the response of
the crowd. The Missouri Tigers beat the Jayhawks and
therefore won a gig at the park, playing dance music in the
dance pavilion where admission was 75 cents a couple, no
singles allowed. Vaudeville was presented with two
acts doing two shows a day. A movie was shown as soon
as the sun set, no Daylight Savings. The Fourth of
July was the hottest in ten years. Humidity plus
96-degree temperatures were responsible for two deaths in
the city, but it was good for business at the swimming
holes.
The diving
ponies were still at Fairmount Park. A huge fireworks
display again reflected off the lake, starting promptly at
9:30, according to someone's time piece. But not all,
atomic clocks were two decades in the future. Radio
Station WHB every day from 11:57 to noon broadcast a time
check, Monday through Friday, making it possible for people
to synchronize their lives to time, the fourth dimension.
There was dancing in the pavilion from 8:30 to 11:30 and a
movie was shown.
Back at
Fairyland, the eight Flying Le Mars, acrobats, flew around.
Professor Lee Planet, did a double-parachute leap twice a
day. The University of Missouri orchestra had whittled
down to ten musicians, thanks to summer vacation. The
KC Juvenile Star Troup performed, featuring Monty Brancato,
tap dancer, and Hugo Tight, rope walker. Again, a
movie preceeded a huge, free fireworks display.
Fairmount Park
40,000 people on the Fourth of July, and by now 30,000 had
already rode the giant dipper this season. The week of
the 15th was celebrated as the park's 35th anniversary.
The main attraction was Millie Florence. She climbed a
70-foot pole, swaying to and fro. Upon reaching the
top she commenced to do death defying stunts. When
asked if she ever got scared, she said, "Only when I look
down and see movement on the ground."
Mayor Sermon
of Independence held his third annual picnic for
Independence children at Fairmount. This picnic was
followed by the American Can Company, Kansas City Clearing
House, Cudahy Packing Company, and the Kansas City Public
Service Brotherhood. Nightly fireworks were also a
part of the park's anniversary.
Some of the
picnics to close out July were the Atlantic and Pacific
Grocery Stores (the A & P), Public Service Employees from
Ninth & Brighton, Cook Paint and Varnish, H. D. Lee
Mercantile Company, and Blue Valley Business Men's Club.
If not for a
small workforce, the "Park in the Woods" would look like a
forest, sun and rain being job security. Push mowers
kept the grass like a green, soft carpet in the many acres
of picnic area shaded by huge trees. Flowers were
grown in the park's greenhouse on the east side of the lake.
Beautifully arranged in the earth along the walkways, where
they could get the most sunlight. Working out of
the boathouse, Al Carlisle and crew were responsible for the
weeds that grew along the bank of the lake. Working
with a small scythe, it wasn't too bad a way to spend the
summer vacation.
August through
the Labor Day weekend brought many picnics to all three
parks, Fairmount led the way. First came the annual
Buckner/Blue Springs, Missouri picnic. Races on both
the athletic field and lake, men women and children
participated. The Bucker Lions played the Blue Springs
Tigers for the Suburban League Championship. Other
picnics for the first week in August were the National Bella
Hess Company, Metropolitan Insurance Company, and United
Garment Workers, all scheduled on different days.
Fairyland was
more than holding its own that first week in August.
The park featured Captain Jack Payne, the World's Greatest
Daredevil Diver, and he must have been nuts. He was
the Evel Knievel of the 1920s. Before coming to
Kansas City he had gained fame by diving 140 feet into
Niagara Falls. A 130-foot dive off the Pittsburgh
Bridge and a 120-foot back somersault in Wheeling, West
Virginia. At Fairyland, every evening at 10:00 and
twice on Sunday, he dove 80 feet into a tank of water which
was on fire, because gasoline burns, while doing a back
flip.
The remainder
of Fairmount's 11928 season was picnic time. A typical
week would go something like this: Monday, the South
Side Merchants' Association; Tuesday, Clearing House of
Greater Kansas City; Wednesday, Knights of Columbus,
Daughters of Isabel, and the Booth Hatcheries of Lee's
Summit; Gettard Groceries on Thursday. On Friday it
was the Grotto Chapters of Topeka, Leavenworth, Kansas City,
Kansas, and Sedalia, Missouri. The park was booked.
Sunday, August
12, brought a one-step (Fox Trot) Dance Contest. 50
couples took part. The winning couple received one
Loving Cup (?). Tuesday was candy night; the prize,
chocolate. On Thursday evening there was a barnyard
dance. The ballroom was decorated like a barn
yard. Earl Coleman's Orchestra dosee-doed. Among
the contests were a rooster crowing contest, potato race,
wheel-barrow race, and a hay-pitching contest. Prizes
representing a farm were given. Special prizes were
given to people dressed as rubes.
Winnwood had a
big problem when someone spread the rumor that the lake
water was contaminated. After a test, the lake was
okayed for swimming, but it sure didn't help business.
Winnwood was not pulling in many picnics, but dancing on the
pavilion built over the lake in the evening was pretty cool.
Fairyland Park
had a dance marathon. Starting at 9 o'clock Friday
night 'till the last of 75 young couples couldn't stand up.
The rules were simple: You danced 21 hours a day.
Every hour you got a 15-minute break for a head call, drink,
food, rest. Then it was up and at-em till 2 a. m.,
when a 3 hour sleep was allowed. Before the sun was up
it was dance time. They danced outside in the
Collegiate Dance Garden to an old Victrola record player.
First prize was one Chevrolet Coup. Seems a little
unfair. Second prize was two diamond rings, third
prize was $100, down to $10 for the twelfth couple to drop.
Among the
larger picnics at Fairmount was the Armour Packing Company's
annual picnic on August 19th. Tickets admitting
employees, families, and friends were liberally distributed.
Games, races, swimming, and a Fox Trot contest in the
evening, with the winning couple receiving one silver Loving
Cup. The picnic basket was replaced by the hot dogs of
the retail grocers. People, upon entering the park,
were advised to save their numbered tickets, as hundreds of
grocery type prizes were to be given away, the grand prize
being a new Chevy Coup. Saturday brought the Kansas
City Southern Railway Co. Great food and a baseball
game, as well as the park's many amenities kept everyone
late into the evening.
The last week
in August was reserved for the annual Mt.
Washington/Fairmount Area picnic. Old-time residents
who had moved were encouraged to return. The park was
shared by Rothschild & Sons Clothing Store, followed by
picnics for the Walker Tabernacle, and the Ford Dealers of
Greater Kansas City were the last major picnic of the
season. No Model A's were given away this year,
although it was game to make fun of the old Fliver.
Prizes were given for the oldest Model T, the most comically
decorated, and best decorated. The many Model A's were
there to be worshipped as the savior of the Ford Motor
Company.
Labor Day
brought Senator James A. Reed, a power in the Democratic
Party. His claim to fame was casting the deciding vote
ushering in the Federal Reserve Act. In 1913, as a member of
the Banking Committee, he changed his vote from "Nay" to
"Yea" and the state of Missouri received two Federal Reserve
Banks, one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City, out of the
deal. Whatever he said was irrelevant, because he was
retiring from politics, after much racial demagoguery.
The lend of
the season brought Carnival Week. There were clowns,
and flags were flown throughout the park. The scene
this year is "A Night in Atlantic City," racing being the
subject, from wheelchairs to row-boats, and crab races.
Much confetti and a dancing contest ended the season.
Two major
projects got underway which would change the aerial
landscape. First was Highway 24, a cement ribbon that
would follow the Independence and Kansas City Road out to
Lexington. A viaduct would have to be built over the
railroad tracks and the Blue River on Kansas City's east
side. Heading east, first through Mt. Washington, then
through the Fairmount's business district, and by Fairmount
Park's front entrance. East to where two farms with
homes had to be condemned and bought between Liberty Street
and Noland Road, where the old Lexington Road finished the
journey out of Jackson County, finally hooking up with the
highway coming east from St. Louis. Second was the new
bridge crossing the Missouri River, connecting Jackson and
Clay Counties at the old Liberty Landing. Costing $970,000,
the payback was to be by toll.
In April the
J. G. White Company of the Big Apple wired Judge Truman and
the Independence Chamber of Commerce, who had both lobbied
for the bridge, that they could announce the projects'
approval. In September a contract was signed with the
Union Bridge Company of Kansas City, Missouri, to start
moving in equipment and build the necessary structures,
including a railroad switch by the Wabash Railroad for
hauling in the tons and tons of stuff. The bridge is
to be 2,194 feet from South to North, most of it was in Clay
County. All-weather roads were promised by both
counties. Obtaining the right of way on the Clay
County side presented a couple of problems. First, Mr.
Robert Elliott, previous owner of 20 acres purchased for
$500, hadn't received his check yet. He would not
allow equipment to be unloaded in his cornfield until he was
paid. A check for $500 borrowed from the Independence
Chamber of Commerce soon arrived. Unloading could
begin. Not one to miss an opportunity, Mr. S. P.
Boggess wanted $9,0000 for a slice of land 1/5 of an acre.
He knew that a pillar had to go there and he never budged.
The dispute was still pending as the year came to an end.
Sugar Creek
continued to prosper. The city taxes were actually
lowered from a 95-cent per $100 valuation, to 80-per cent
per, a savings of 17%. The town, including Standard
Oil, was assessed at $3,754,950. Of the $30,000 paid
in 1928 taxes, Standard Oil paid 81%, or $23,957.
Sugar Creek's larder came from Kansas City. The annual
consumption was about 200,000 cubic feet per month, and
there were 264 hookups. For 75 cents per month a
customer was allowed 2,000 gallons. The next 13,000
were billed at 23 cents per thousand. The next 15,000
cost 22 cents. In June the city council was losing
patience with water users. Some were over 90 days
overdue. David Evinger, Water Superintendent, was
giving warnings before taking out their water meters.
It was the
first year for the "Sugar Creek Flashers, a baseball team in
the Kansas City Journal Post League. By the Fourth of
July they were in second place. A problem for the team
had been getting to the games. The boys took an old
Model-T that had been parked in front of a telephone pole
for months. The auto had been abandoned and stripped
down to its skivvies. Only the frame and parts of the
motor were left to rot in the sun. Soon it was on the
road. The only problem was money for gas. The
rule was whoever bought the gas, drove. For some
reason the old car would only start by raising the rear
wheels on two boxes before cranking.
On September
26 the inspiration and promoter of the Air Line passed.
Arthur Stilwell, born..... He used the name "Air
Line," because he claimed it was built only on hot air,
mainly his. He was a spiritualist entrepreneur,
meaning his inspirational endeavors came to him thanks to
him thanks to spirits he called Brownies. `
